Rotary engine.



P. F. HODGES.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED 001222, 190s.

906,425. Patented' De@ 8, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

VORNE V3 PLINY F. ODGES, OF OLD OFFICE, VIRGINIA.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 8, 1908.

Apucaaon mea october 22, 190s. serial No. 459,009.

To'all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PLINY F. Honoris, re-

siding at Old Office, in the county of Gooch` land and State ofVirginia, have invented a newand Improved Construction of Rotary Engine,of W ich thefollowing'is a specification.

This invention relates to rotary engines and has for its purpose toprovide an im tight, by the cross bolts 6--G, as clearly shown rovedmeans of utilizing the expansive orce of asteam 1n rotary engines, and1t conslsts 1n parallel steam passageways between vthe inlet and exhaustports and valve incohanism operating to admit and out ofi' the steam tosaid passage Ways alternately,'so that the4 initial pressure from .theboiler will be applied to one of said passages whilethe expansive forceof' steamis operating in the other passage way.

In its more subordinate features, my invention consists in certaindetails of construction and peculiar combination of parts, all of whichwill befhereinafter fully described,

specifically pointed out in the appended claims and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure 1, isa perspective View of myimproved construction of rotary engine. Fig. 2, is a vertical",longitudinal section thereof. Fig. 3, is a horizontal section of thecasing, the rotary pistonor runner being omitted. Fig. 4, is a plan viewof the. rotary piston or 4 Fig. 5,'is a perspective view of the rotaryvalve.

In the practical arrangement of my invention, the same is arranged asshown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, and comprises a circular casing l,which rises -vertically from the base or foundationA L() integral withthe casing and suitably flanged whereby it can be conveniently andsolidly secured to a floor r other support. IVithin the casing isroatably mounted the piston 2, which is keyed to the shaft 4 thatjournals in hub bearings 5 5 on the cap plates 5 that form the endclosures for the casing l, to which they are held, steam in thedrawings. The cylinder casing l has centrally disposed exhausts r-.rthat are transversely disposed and discharge into a central exhaustingport and at one side the said casing has a pair of transverse inlets 70"7()b that discharge into the casing and which communicate with asingle valve chamber 7 in which is rotatably mounted the valve 8 andwith which the feed pipe from the boiler connects.

The valveS, the detailed construction of which is shown in Fig. 5, isformed with a central annular steam space 8 and at each end with anumber of equi-distantly spaced channels 81 that extend in thelongitudinal axis of the valve and an e ual number of cut ols 82, saidcut offs and the channels in the opposite ends of the valves beingalternately arranged whereby to provide for a proper cooperation of thevalve with thestear'n passages in the casing and particularly foradmittin the steam .intermittently and alternate y throu h the feedports or inlets 70a--70b as best s iown in-Fig. 8.

The rotary piston 2 has its peripheral faces provided with two sets ofparallelly disposed radial abutments 2a, nine being shown in thedrawings, that are joined by a series of peripheral passage ways orpockets 2b that gradually but uniformly increase in depth in the forwarddirection, that is, in the direction of rotation of the piston, forreasons presently explained.

The two sets ofpassage waysV or pockets in the manufacture of the pistonand the casing are cored out and the said two sets form two continuousrows of steam passages that are interrupted at predetermined inter,dvals by the abutments 2a and 3, the said pockets or Apassage ways, aswill be best seen from Fig. 4, do not extend'entirely across the pistonfaces but are stopped short of the ends and of eachother whereby toprovide end closure portions 2b' and a central closure portion c2 forthe pockets or ways to hold the steam from passing against the end caps5--5,

the other, theV said two sets 4of pockets also or from one passagewaytov from passing endwise out ofthe said pockets By arranging the pocketsor steam pas-p sages on the piston and on the casing in the manner shownand described, the space l between the casing wall and the piston ismost' restricted at the infeed end. and is of` gradually increasing areatoward the ex* l hausts cv, whereby to provide for taking proper care ofthe expansive force to prevent any back lash or cushioningof the saidforce,- since by reason of the gradually increasing depth of the casingsurfaces practically all of the back pressure of the expansion force istaken up by the said abutments, thereby causing the'said expansive forcetoexert a maximum pressure against lthe abutments on the down-going sideof the piston.

It will be noticed that by the peculiar construction and relativearrangement of the pockets or steam passages on the piston and in theopposing casing Wall, that at intervals the steam after the infeed iscut off, is pocketed, the times of which is regulated by thenumber ofpockets or abutments formed on the steam engaging faces of the casingand the piston and by reason thereof the expansive force is repeatedlyutilized on the piston as the live,y steam impulses' are intermittentlyadmitted into the restricted spacev between the piston and casing, thehve steam impulses being regulated by the relative speeds of the valveand the piston, and by the number of cut offs and feed channels formedinthe rotary controlling valve. Again, the valve mechanism is of' such'character that it provides for practically continuous live steamimpulses against the piston, by reason of first charging against theabutments at one side of the said piston and then against the abutmentsat the other side thereof, as well asthe continuous use of the expansiveforce,

sincethe correlation of the pocketsin the piston, the steam inlet, thepockets in the .casingare so combined that at predeter- Ymined times,the live steam impulses are either at 'one side of the rotary piston orat 'the other: side, While the ex )ansion of the prior ycharge isexerting itsel on the downgoing side of the piston, such operation notalone 'rendering the engine one of high efficiency and speed, but alsoovercoming the sudden jerks and jars usually found in rotary engines.Furthermore, by reason of the gradually increasing depth of the pocketsmaximum energy from a minimum expense of steam power.

While I have shown the piston with nine radial abutments and pockets, Idesire it understood that the said number, as also the number of pocketsand abutments on the casing chamber may be increased or diminished andthe valve may have a greater or less `number of properly spaced cutoii's'and stean channels without departing from my invention or the scope ofthe appended claims. It should be noted that the abutments areoppositely arranged inboth. piston and casin y.

. It shou d be stated, the general construction of my present ty e ofengine 4is also disclosed in my co-pen ing application, Serial No.388239, iiled August l2, i907, allowed October 12, 1908. My presentinvention differs from what is shown in the said copending applicationin that the two series of steam passages and abutments are oppositelyarranged, that is, in transverse alinement, instead of alternatelyarranged as described,` shown and claimed in said other application. Byreason of arranging the'steam passages and abutments in transversealine-kv ment or oppositely as stated, the live steam impact is appliedat the samevcircumferent`a points on the piston in each of the passageways. l

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is

l. In a rotary engine, the piston and cas ing therefor, comprising twoseries of oppo-A sitely disposed annular abutments and opp0 sitelydisposed pockets in the casing, two series of peripheral pockets andabutments encircling the piston in cooperation with the /said annularabutments and pockets so as t0 form parallel steam passageways from theinlets to the exhausts and a valve operating to admit and cut otlf thesteam to and from the abutments and pockets, the lpockets and lcontrolling valve for the inlet having two seabutments of the two seriesbeing in transries of alternately arranged pockets and out 10versealinement and of u-neqal}numb r.d d i o's. 1

4. n a rotary engine in W ic 1 is inc u e 1 5 a rotary disk and a casingtherefor, the said l y P F' HODGEb disk and the casing each having twoseries of i WVitnesses: annular abutments and pockets and the cas- FREDG. DIETERIOH, ing having an inlet and an outlet; 'a rotary l ELEANORMACCORMICK.

